"HAZEL BLEARS, the new communities minister responsible for planning decisions, has received a five-figure campaign donation from a multi-millionaire property developer. The cabinet minister registered the payment from a firm owned by Brian Scowcroft, one of Britain’s richest men, on the eve of the parliamentary recess. The developer has recently lodged a planning application for a controversial new hotel and conference centre in Cumbria which will be sent to Blears’s Whitehall office for approval. As minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Blears has the ultimate say on contentious planning applications. "

I do not suggest that Blears has done anything outside the rules, only that such behaviour is likely to bring the government into disrepute.

"YVETTE COOPER, the housing minister, is presiding over a government scheme that has paid out up to £35m to property speculators who have profited by buying up homes earmarked for demolition. A Sunday Times investigation has found that the speculators are cashing in on a £1.2 billion regeneration scheme where they can buy Victorian terraced houses earmarked for demolition for as little as £20,000...then reap huge dividends by selling them on, for up to triple the price, to government regeneration agencies which demolish them to make way for “affordable” flats. New figures show that last year £125m of regeneration funds was spent buying homes for demolition. It is estimated that between £20m and £35m was paid to private investors, individual speculators and buy-to-let landlords, many of whom buy condemned homes for the compensation payouts. The homes are often bought by speculators at below market value from anxious residents who are not prepared for a lengthy wait for the homes to be compulsorily purchased. Speculators who have held properties for just three months have seen returns of more than 55% when they are then bought for demolition under the so-called Pathfinder schemes. The project, aimed at regenerating inner-city areas, was the brainchild of John Prescott and has already been criticised for its plans to demolish tens of thousands of terraced houses. Now a fundamental flaw has been exposed in the scheme. "

Of course, I don't suggest that Cooper has broken any rules, only that the entire history of the pathfinder scheme is likely to bring the Government into disrepute.